Dylan Steffen had one bad inning but it came early and he recovered nicely to lead El Paso-Gridley to a 9-1 victory over Lexington Friday at South Pointe Park.

The win secured an outright Heart of Illinois Conference baseball championship for the Titans, who are now 11-0 in league play with one game remaining.

“We have eight seniors on the team so it was a great night,” EPG head coach Ken Colmone after his team improved to 17-3 overall.

The Titans will play at Heyworth today in the regular-season finale with a chance to finish undefeated in the HOIC.

An eight-run margin may be a little misleading to how effectively a Lexington freshman was throwing, but it also perfectly indicates how a club goes about earning that “champ-ions” moniker.

Steffen retired the Minutemen in easy fashion in the first inning by not allowing a ball out of the infield.

He ran into difficulty in the second as Lexington tallied the first run of the game with a chance to score more.

“He looked a little uncomfortable (early),” Colmone said. “Dylan is one of those kids that when he works with confidence, he’s tough.”

Steffen retired the first batter in the second frame but Jonny Meints ripped a two-base hit to right field. Tommy Kraft drew a two-out walk and Henry Nettles singled to left to load the bases.

Tanner Tattini took a pitch off his foot to force in Meints.

“I wasn’t feeling so hot in the first couple of innings but after that the curve ball started working better it I settled down,” Steffen said.

And settle in he did. Steffen struck out Andy Jolly to close out the second inning and then retired eight more batters in a row before walking Jolly in the fifth inning. It was the beginning a run of setting down 14 of 15 batters.

Steffen ran into a bit of trouble in the seventh when he walked Kraft with one out and hit Tattini with two outs before striking out Jolly to end the game.

“The fastball started working well and he was placing it well,” EPG catcher Austin Hendren said of Steffen. “Once we got those runs, it helped a lot. It was a good day.”

Steffen finished with seven strikeouts and walked three batters while hitting two. Lexington managed just two hits — both in the second inning.

Page 2 of 3 - “Give him a lot of credit (but) we also stopped swinging,” LHS head coach Dave Lingle said. “When we swing and put the ball in play you have chances.”

El Paso-Gridley didn’t light up Lexington starter Blake Edwards right off. The freshman southpaw retired the Titans in order in the first and third innings while getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the second with no damage.

Hendren commented that it was hard to hit Edwards because of the lack of velocity on the pitches.

“We all settled in, got a few hits and put up nine runs,” Hendren said.

Hendren was the first to get to Edwards. He singled in the second inning and again in the fourth. His fourth-inning hit was in the hole that shortstop Nate Jacobs missed with a backhand stab at the grounder.

It was Taylor Augsburger who came up with the hit that drew EPG even. His two-out single plated Hendren to make it 1-1.

The Titans then got rolling in the fifth inning. Edwards did not last to close out the frame.

Connor Haas doubled to right-center and Brady McWilliams coaxed a walk to begin what became a six-run rally.

Steffen reached on a fielder’s choice. Jacobs came off the bag early on the play to load the bases with no outs.

Ian Hall then stroked a bases-clearing triple to right-center that gave the Titans a 4-1 lead. Hall scored on Hendren’s sacrifice fly. Boring singled down the right field line and that was the end of Edwards’ day on the hill.

“I may have left him in there a batter or two too long,” Lingle said of Edwards. “He did not let me down; he did a good job.”

Nettles took over and Tanner Benedict reached on an error to greet the senior. Augsburger blooped a single to right that scored Boring and Josh Matzke grounded out to second that drive in Benedict to make it 7-1.

McWilliams walked to lead off the sixth. He advanced to third on two wild pitches and then scored on Steffen’s sacrifice fly. Hall then walked, stole second and scored on Boring’s two-out single.

Augsburger, Boring and Hendren had two hits apiece to lead the EPG offense. Hall tripled and drove in three runs, Benedict doubled and Haas and Caleb Zehr each singled.

Meints doubled and Nettles singled for the two hits for the Minutemen (6-9-1).

Page 3 of 3 - Edwards gave up six runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out two in 4 1-3 innings. Nettles fanned one, walked two and yielded three runs on three hits in 1 2-3 innings of relief.